If ID Theorists Are Right, How Should We Study Nature?

One can at least point a direction by now. I began this series by asking, what has materialism (naturalism) done for science? It made a virtue of preferring theory to evidence, if the theory supports naturalism and the evidence doesn't. Well-supported evidence that undermines naturalism (the Big Bang and fine tuning of the universe, for example) attracted increasingly speculative attempts at disconfirmation. Discouraging results from the search for life on Mars cause us to put our faith in life on exoplanets -- lest Earth be seen as unusual (the Copernican Principle).

All this might be just the beginning of a great adventure. World-changing discoveries, after all, have originated in the oddest circumstances. Who would have expected the Americas to be discovered by people who mainly wanted peppercorns, cinnamon, sugar, and such? But disturbingly, unlike the early modern adventurers who encountered advanced civilizations, we merely imagine them. We tell ourselves they must exist; in the absence of evidence, we make faith in them a virtue. So while Bigfoot was never science, the space alien must always be so, even if he is forever a discipline without a subject.

But the evidence is still there, all along the road to reality. It is still saying what the new cosmologies do not want to hear. And the cost of ignoring it is the decline of real-world programs like NASA in favor of endlessly creative speculation. It turns out that, far from being the anchor of science, materialism has become its millstone.

But now, what if the ID theorists are right, that information rather than matter is the basic stuff of the universe? It is then reasonable to think that meaning underlies the universe. Meaning cannot then be explained away. It is the irreducible core. That is why reductive efforts to explain away evidence that supports meaning (Big Bang, fine-tuning, physical laws) have led to contradictory, unresearchable, and unintelligible outcomes.

The irreducible core of meaning is controversial principally because it provides support for theism. But the alternative has provided support for unintelligibility. Finally, one must choose. If we choose what intelligent design theorist Bill Dembski calls "information realism," the way we think about cosmology changes.

First, we live with what the evidence suggests. Not simply because it suits our beliefs but because research in a meaningful universe should gradually reveal a comprehensible reality, as scientists have traditionally assumed. If information, not matter, is the substrate of the universe, key stumbling blocks of current materialist science such as origin of life, of human beings, and of human consciousness can be approached in a different way. An information approach does not attempt to reduce these phenomena to a level of complexity below which they don't actually exist.

Materialist origin of life research, for example, has been an unmitigated failure principally because it seeks a high and replicable level of order that just somehow randomly happened at one point. The search for the origin of the human race has been similarly vitiated by the search for a not-quite-human subject, the small, shuffling fellow behind the man carrying the spear. In this case, it would have been well if researchers had simply never found their subject. Unfortunately, they have attempted at times to cast various human groups in the shuffler's role. Then gotten mired in controversy, and largely got the story wrong and missed its point.

One would have thought that materialists would know better than to even try addressing human consciousness. But materialism is a totalistic creed or else it is nothing. Current theories range from physicist Max Tegmark's claim that human consciousness is a material substance through to philosopher Daniel Dennett's notion that it is best treated somewhat like "figments of imagination" (don't ask whose) through philosopher Alex Rosenberg's idea that consciousness is a problem that will have to be dissolved by neuroscience. All these theories share two characteristics: They reduce consciousness to something that it isn't. And they get nowhere with understanding what it is. The only achievement that materialist thought can claim in the area of consciousness studies is to make them sound as fundamentally unserious as many current cosmologies. And that is no mean feat.

Suppose we look at the origin of life from an information perspective. Life forms show a much higher level of information, however that state of affairs came about, than non-living matter does. From our perspective, we break no rule if we assume, for the sake of investigation, that the reason we cannot find evidence for an accidental origin of life is that life did not originate in that way. For us, nothing depends one way or the other on demonstrating that life was an accident. We do not earn the right to study life's origin by declaring that "science" means assuming that such a proposition is true and proceeding from there irrespective of consequences. So, with this in mind, what are we to make of the current state of origin-of-life research?

Editor's note: Here is the "Science Fictions" series to date at your fingertips .

In our time, counterfeits abound and it's good to draw distinctions between the true and false, and that was my intention — which appears not to have been as clear as I hoped

Thank you for the clarification, dear spirited!

I can give a fine example of such a "counterfeit" — the so-called New Age Religion which proclaims the second coming of the Christ. Indeed, according to its prophet Benjamin Creme, the new Christ was incarnated in the Himalayas in 1977, and then moved to London, where he has been waiting in the wings ever since for the right time to declare himself.

But this new Christ is not Jesus. It is a risen Master of the Hierarchy by the name of the Lord Maitreya. He is "moving up" in the Hierarchy, because the current incumbent of the Office of the Christ — see, Christ is a hierarchical office, not a person, not the Son of God — Sanat Kumara, is preparing to leave our earthly system altogether, to assume higher duties elsewhere in the Cosmos.

The one really important thing about Maitreya's accession to "higher office" is the expectation that the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism will be thoroughly blended under his guidance and example. And this is the New Age, One-World religion that all men will come to believe. And a paradise on earth will then commence — under the supervision and direction of the Masters of the Hierarchy.

The risen masters are human beings who, through esoteric practices and a succession of "initiations," through their own efforts are becoming increasingly "god-like." Anyone who wants to take up these practices can do the same for himself. I.e., one can become a risen master himself, given enough time.

There are seven intra-planetary initiations. Jesus Christ is considered only a fourth-degree initiate (owing to his Crucifixion — that was His fourth initiation right there — but there is no mention of his Resurrection). As such he is outranked by the Buddha, who in turn is outranked by Maitreia and the soon-to-be-departed Sanat Kumara.

Here is the rather innocuous-sounding major prayer of this ersatz faith:

The Great Invocation

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the center where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men —
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the center which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power
restore the Plan on Earth.

Are we getting the picture here? It is easy for me to understand how an idealistic young person who is disenchanted with the traditional church or synagogue, or a highly-rationalist atheist, would find this new "religion" appealing. It has a nifty scientific, astrophysical ring to it. It totally dispenses with the Christian God and the Holy Scriptures, while retaining the use of familiar Christian symbols.

In Transmission: A Meditation for the New Age [1983], Benjamin Creme justifies the new one-world religion this way:

God is both out there and in here. The Christ taught that God is within. Nevertheless, the general view of God in the Western world is to see God as out there, transcendent, above and beyond its creation, to be worshipped from afar. The Eastern approach is quite different. It is to the God within. The Eastern religions have taught us that God is everywhere, that there is nowhere where God is not. God is in all creations — men, animals, trees, everything. There is nothing in the manifested world which is not God. All beings and the space between all beings is God, closer than the breath, closer than the hands, God immanent.

Both approaches are right. God is both transcendent and immanent. In the new world religion, the Christ will bring these two concepts of God together, will synthesize them to show that God is transcendent, above and beyond man and all creation, while at the same time intrinsic, immanent in all creation. Both concepts are true, and both can be held simultaneously, even if they seem to be contradictory....

But Creme never really explains how that can be. I had a face-to-face conversation with him once upon a time, and would have loved to explore his thinking on this question. But once he discovered I was a "greedy capitalist," religion and philosophy went right out the window, and we spent three hours sparring about politics and economics. It is absolutely clear to me that Benjamin Creme is a British socialist and a radical progressive "one-worlder." And this one-world religion is propagandizing recruits to his political and economic views.

Anyhoot, dear sister in Christ, I thought you might find this stuff interesting. It demonstrates that "gnostic systems" are very much alive and well TODAY....

Your observation that Darwinism is an inversion of the great chain of being "bespeaking an unbroken continuity between the low (chemicals) and the high — mind" is spot-on, IMHO....

Thank you much for writing, dear sister in Christ! Please share your thoughts with me?

There's much to say with respect to New Age spirituality. So rather than jump into the meaning, intent, and consequences of initiations, trance-state techniques, astral planes, and other aspects, I'll begin at the beginning with a categorical definition and key elements.

New Age is an occult worldview, a form of mystical monism that has much in common with Eastern mystical monism.

The basic foundations of the occult worldview consistently teach the following elements:

1. Monism and evolution: Though there are different forms of monism the common denominator of them all is the idea that the universe and everything in it consists of or is reducible to one substance in process of evolution.

In direct contrast to the Biblical teaching that, even though men are made in the spiritual image of God, they do not partake of God's being (Gen. 1:27), both New Age pantheism and its Eastern counterpart teach that as all things are reducible to one substance, divine spiritualized matter (prakriti), then divine consciousness (God reduced to prakriti) operates within the neural complexity of man's brain. So God is within the brain of man:

“Since the unconscious is God all along, we may further define the goal of spiritual growth to be the attainment of godhood by the conscious self.” (A Different Drum, M. Scott Peck)

Mystical forms of monism characteristically accept some form of pantheism, as exemplified by for example, Teilhard de Chardin's Advaita Hindu pantheist New Religion and Leonard Sweet's Quantum Spirituality based in Teilhard's conceptions.

Advaita (monistic) Hinduism teaches the one ultimate reality that everything consists of is Nirguna Brahman (an impersonal God-force or Void) while Teilhard's system reduces everything to Omega---his version of Brahman.

It is the monistic premise of both Darwinism and mystical occult monism that makes them fundamentally anti-Christian and anti-human. In Dr. Gary North's excellent evaluation of monism, "Unholy Spirits: Occultism and New Age Humanism," North writes that,

"...there is a permanent, unbridgeable gap between the ultimate being of God and the derivative being of creatures. There is a Creator-creature distinction (meaning that) men do not partake of God's being...they are not of the same substance as God. There is no more fundamental doctrine than this one. Significantly, in every form of occultism this principle is denied....Satan's old temptation to man hinges on his denial and man's denial of the Creator-creature distinction..." (pp. 59-61)

2. God is ultimately an impersonal substance as opposed to God as personal and loving (John 3:16)

3. Man's true identity is God since he is one with (shares) God's being as opposed to man created in God's image though not sharing the being of God. (Gen. 1:27)

4. Since there is only one substance, then evil is in harmony with the amoral god-substance or force. In contrast, Scripture teaches that evil operates in opposition to God's holy nature (1 Peter 1:14, 15; 3:12)

5. Illumination or enlightenment (salvation) is achieved through self-realization (awareness of personal divinity) by various occult spiritist practices, i.e., séances, spells, automatic writing, meditation, hypnosis, Ouija boards, shamanic drumming, Kundalini yoga, visualization, mind-altering drugs. Occult salvation is the antithesis of salvation based on the atonement (Christ's suffering and death for sin) and received as a free gift by grace through faith in God and Christ (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; 17:3)

6. Psychic or spiritual powers resulting from initiation into occult spiritist practices (see above) open the mind to contact with and even possession by spirits that are often used for personal power. In contrast, Scripture teaches that spiritual gifts are distinct from and work in opposition to occult psychic powers. They are given by God to His people for service to others ( 1 Cor. 12:4-11; 14:3)

7. Eternal cyclic incarnation into different bodies over thousands or millions of years or reabsorption (annihilation and/or personal extinction) into the impersonal substance. In opposition, Scripture teaches physical resurrection and personal immortality in either an eternal physical heaven or hell (Matthew 25:46)

In monism, whether 'secular' Darwinian or mystical occult versions, the traditional Western Judeo-Christian ways of thinking and perceiving are rejected because "all is one." This means there is no ultimate distinction between God and man, God and Jesus Christ and Satan, male and female, true and false, good and evil, moral and immoral, holy and unholy, or right and wrong because "true reality" (the one substance) is beyond the illusory categories associated with the natural (physical) world. This being the case, then murder, genocide, rape, sodomy, pederasty, pedophilia, lying, cheating and theft cannot be considered evil if evil itself is in harmony with the divine one substance.

While nothing can really be considered evil, nor can anything really be considered good. So love, honesty, integrity, courage, fidelity, and commitment cannot be considered good and worthy for the same reason evil cannot be considered evil.

Finally, there is no such thing as personhood (genuine personality) because true reality is the one dimension consisting of the impersonal one substance of which all things are aspects or units: not persons but aspects or units. In this way of thinking, the supernatural dimension and the One God in three Persons who made all men in His spiritual image, do not exist. Therefore personhood is an illusion. In fact, since personality is supposedly a hindrance to occult spiritual enlightenment, it must be destroyed.

The occult worldview of Satan has been with us from the pre-flood days of Noah. Today its' most highly developed forms are Wicca and Advaita Hinduism and derivatives such as the occult New Age spirituality overspreading the West and America and penetrating into the whole body of the Christian church.

...the children pouring out of schools these days expect instant gratification. And for them, New Age belief is a quick fix.

Assuming they feel they need a "belief" at all. [E.g., How much belief does it take to execute a video game, or watch TV?]

If they do have a belief, however, it would seem to be the belief in "Progress" — which I daresay is the principal legacy of Darwin's evolution theory, at least in the general public mind.

Putting it crudely, Darwinian evolution presupposes that the evolution of species leads to "greater fitness" of species; implying that the (irreversible) forward evolution of species must lead to a condition of "better" as compared with the current situation of the species in situ.

Which is an example of "progress." Implying in many minds that things on earth are just naturally disposed to get "better and better." The idea that the reverse might at least sometimes be true does not enter their minds.

Darwin presents the picture of lemur leading to monkey leading to chimp, leading to the higher ape, leading to man. Such progress on display!

Unfortunately, Darwin never bothers to elucidate exactly what constitutes advancement along this linear concept of development. So how do we know this development indicates "Progress?"

If it does, what is next? Machine man? or man sunk in barbarism (again)?

This sort of thinking is carried over directly into what Benjamin Creme is selling....

[BTW, his organization, Share International, is a recognized NGO of the United Nations; and I understand the U.N. "Chapel" is organized around Creme's "spiritual themes," because of their cross-cultural and religious "inclusiveness."]

I just wish and hope and pray that the churches and synagogues will do a better job of protecting their young people, going forward.

Otherwise, their young people will be easy prey for the sharpsters of this world....

They need to be fortified by the knowledge that God alone is their only shield against evil in this world.

My dearest sister in Christ, thank you so very much for writing, and for your kind words of support!

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